Okay, so I definitely won't win now that I've slagged them off. But if you want to see who might, the nominations are here.

To be fair to the British Institute of Slogans, or whatever they're called, there are one or two rather better-qualified folk on the jury, such as Dave Trott, who has himself penned some of advertising's most memorable slogans, and Richard Foster (legendary writer, AMV). Also the Slogans Hall of Fame on their website is mildly diverting.

While we're on the subject of slogans, it's curious to me how some Creatives reckon they're outdated. The term 'slogan' is outdated, for sure, but a line that concisely expresses a powerful strategy, that still has a lot of value, doesn't it? Especially in pitches. Nine times out of ten, it's a line that wins a pitch.

There's a stonking debate over at Lunar's on the addition of Planners to the juries for the Campaign 'Big' Awards.

Meanwhile, Dave Trott is on fire too. Before blogging, how often would you get to hear the thoughts of an industry legend like Trotty? Once a year maybe? Now you can read him every day, and he's brilliant.

(Having said that, I do disagree with about 80% of what he writes. Fortunately, Dave doesn't seem to mind; I guess he loves a good debate. Or perhaps he just hasn't figured out how to delete people's comments yet)...

Anyway, one of his latest posts is a story about how Frank Lowe sold an ad at CDP.

I'm really happy he has posted something positive about Account Men. Creatives give Account Men almost nothing but stick. And that's quite boring.

So I'm going to tell a positive story too.

A few years ago, my partner and I (this was before Scowling A.D.) had written a not-terribly good poster for a car, which called our biggest competitor "a turkey".

For some reason, the stock shot of a turkey we had found was terrible. It just didn't look plump like a turkey should, and the client wasn't happy. We were short of time so we asked the Account Man to give it another go. He was successful, by telling the client that, on the contrary, this shot depicted the ideal bird - slim and beautiful - "it's the Helena Christensen of turkeys." Who could say no to an argument like that?

If you have a story of an Account Man doing something good - doesn't have to be about selling an ad, they do do more than that - post it into the comments.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Wiley complains that a girl is "wearing my Rolex." Should we feel sorry for him?

Scamp reader 50p points us to this nice piece by a BBC blogger which alleges that rappers are taking money from marketers to mention their brands.

If it's true, I'm not that surprised. These so-called artists are very happy to get their tours sponsored, license dolls of themselves... I'm sure Michelangelo would have added a bottle of Renaissance Water into the corner of the ceiling if they'd slipped him a few ducats.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Last week nearly everyone voted that good work was primarily the result of a good relationship. I don't know about that. It certainly sounds nice. But there's plenty of cosy relationships out there producing shit work. I mean, agencies like Grey and McCann are known for the strength of their relationships, aren't they?

I voted that it's the Agency. Sounds egotistical, but there are certain agencies that do pretty good work on nearly all their accounts. That's not a coincidence.

This week's poll is about what is the best size of agency to work at.

The best post I've ever read on the subject was in a brilliant and under-appreciated blog called Advertising For Peanuts, in which the author came up with this neat list of Pro's and Con's:

Small Agency

Pro'sYou do everything, start to finish You feel like part of a family Uncomplicated work environmentYou feel like you own the place

Pro'sYou have help from other departments to realize the workGood peer pressureGood roster of hungry clients (I think the size of the shop attracts the size of the client)Lots of assignments floating aroundLittle politics

Con'sLong hoursMedium is a stepping stone to large

Large agency

Pro'sGood pay and benefitsShort hoursNice people

Con'sLots of politicsToo many people working on a projectA good meeting is better than good work

But what's your preference? Let us know. And cast your vote, in the right hand column of this blog.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

When I was starting out, every creative department had several P.A.'s, who typed the Creatives' scripts and kept track of their whereabouts.

Now that Creatives have computers and mobiles, the role of departmental P.A. has all but disappeared. But the 'executive' P.A. - who manages creative directors' diaries - remains. And in my view, it's an essential role. A top creative director's time is pretty expensive, therefore it makes sense for an Agency to get the most out of it.

But what's your view of P.A.s? Do you agree with me that they are vital, or do you have a less flattering view? Any particularly good or bad experiences to report? Is it important for Creatives to get on with P.A.'s?

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

I've said before that if you can avoid presenting to Clients, you should do so.

However, if you disagree with that, or if your Agency has a policy that Creatives present the creative work, then how should you go about doing it?

The process of presenting to Clients breaks down into two phases – ‘in the room’, and ‘before you go into the room’.

Before you go into the room, you should be marshalling the best reference you can. But don’t show too much. I have seen Creatives present five separate pieces of reference for a single press ad, saying “this one’s a reference for the colour palette but don’t look at the models, they’re not right, for the models you need to look at this other piece of reference, but don’t look at the lighting on that one, for the lighting we have this other shot…” Very confusing. Keep the reference simple, and try to find one or two pieces that say everything you want to say.

Rehearse with the account team what issues may come up. Rehearse your presentation as many times as you need to.

Make sure you know the names of the Clients before you go in. People like to be called by their names. Make sure you know who does what, so you don’t ask their research manager a question about the production budget, for example. And make sure you know who the key buyer is. Focus your energy on them, while not excluding the other people in the room.

Once in the room, presenting to the Client is very much like presenting to the account team. Plenty of preamble is needed. Much of the set-up may be done by the Planners and Account Handlers, but there may be some for you to do too. For important projects, you may even need to make a mood film.

Don’t treat any of this lightly, thinking that your ‘real job’ is to come up with the ideas. The most successful Creatives aren’t just the ones who are good at coming up with ideas, they’re good at selling them too.

And to sell an idea, nothing convinces more than conviction itself.

Perhaps the most famous poster ever produced in the UK was ‘Labour Isn’t Working’, created by Saatchi & Saatchi for the Conservative Party in 1979. Those three words, above a simple shot of people queuing at an unemployment office, added up to a piece of communication that is generally considered to have been a significant factor in Margaret Thatcher’s first election victory.

However, what is less well-known is that when the concept was first presented to Mrs Thatcher, she didn’t like it. “This poster advertises Labour”, she told Maurice Saatchi. “On the contrary, Margaret,” he replied. “It demolishes them.”

One of the reasons I love that story is that I just love the word “demolishes.” But the real lesson here is Maurice Saatchi’s conviction. When a Client looks at a concept, they first look for what is wrong with it. If they can't find anything wrong with it, they begin to suspect it may be right, but what they don’t know is ‘how right’. And here, the most important factor that can sway them is your conviction. You have to tell them that this ad is going to be great. You have to tell them that it won’t just hurt the competition, it will demolish them.

Creatives are often accused of being arrogant, and of ‘talking-up’ their own work. Well, you have to. Whether your ad gets made or not may depend on how much you seem to believe in it.

Monday, July 21, 2008

This digital tyre air compressor, made by Coopers of Stortford, and advertised in Saturday's Weekend Guardian, was awarded SIX STARS OUT OF SIX. By no less an authority than Coopers of Stortford itself.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Most of you think they are deliberately sacrificing their print work, to make the TV good. I've been in touch with some Fallon creatives over the course of the week. They don't know the answer, but they don't think it's that. Also, if that was the strategy, I think we'd see bigger packshots and more product info in the print.

The impression I get is that it's multi-factorial, so none of the three options on the poll really cover it.

If you have the answer, send an e-mail to Richard Flintham.

Okay, that's it. I'm officially sick of talking about Fallon now.

I am not going to post about that particular agency again until at least the beginning of September. Not even if their building is taken over by terrorists.

Instead, there will now be a new poll in the right hand column. It's a question suggested by Andres, an Argentine working in the US. He wonders "Is there such a thing as good and bad clients, or is that just a myth?" I get his point. Honda were running very average work, then they went to W&K, and the work became great. That suggests they weren't a bad client, they just didn't have a good agency.

Then again, Nike and VW nearly always get great work, and they're with a whole slew of different agencies around the world. Even Grey could do a good Nike ad, couldn't they?

Or does great work come out of great relationships? That theory sounds good, but are there cases of great work happening, despite a fractured relationship, which would disprove it?

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

In 'A Smile In The Mind', David Stuart describes feeling an "absence", before the arrival of an idea.

For me, it's like a form of electric shock in my brain and (for some reason) my arms and occasionally chest. That sounds dramatic, but sometimes it's very mild. The severity of the shock seems to correspond to how 'big' the idea is.

Whatever it's like for you, you always know when you've had one.

And in an ideal world, you would never present anything that didn't result from one of these light-bulb or brain-storm moments.

But this isn't an ideal world. Time is a problem - you often have to present something "in two days" rather than when you've had a great idea. It could be a crap brief, or a brief you just don't click with... on some briefs, you may never have an idea.

So you may end up presenting several 'ideas', none of which actually have an idea in them.

Oh well. Needs must. And you've got to have something, so that something can be discussed in the meeting.

That's okay. As long as you're honest with yourself.

If you haven't had that feeling, you haven't had an idea. And in my opinion, it's worth working on until you do, rather than spending time polishing an idea-less idea that if it gets made could very well end up being a... well, a you know what.

P.S. the tendency seems to be for people to have lots and lots of ideas at the beginning of their careers, and fewer and fewer as the years go on; the compensation for this decline is that more of your later-years ideas will be 'right'. Does this chime with your experience?

Friday, July 11, 2008

And yet recently there's been a lot of discussion as to why their current print work (viewable on their website in the ‘design’ section) is not as good as their TV.

I reckon there are 3 possible explanations:

1) They don’t care about print.2) They don’t know how to do good print. 3) They are operating a deliberate strategy of putting all the dirty stuff into the print ads – like massive packshots and product information – in order to keep the TV clean and award-winning.

Give us your view. (I’ve taken the liberty of moving comments about Fallon’s print made on a previous thread onto this one).

Also you can vote on those possible explanations, in the right hand column of this blog.

In second place was Stefan Hawes, from Vancouver. His prize was a set of postcards by LA-based artists Kozyndan, the ones who may or may not have inspired the Sony 'Bunnies' ad.

"I'm an account guy by trade," says Stefan. "Sorry about that. I spent about 11 years with DDB Vancouver and Tribal DDB San Francisco. In mid-'06 I went client-side to run marketing for an online retailer. And since last December I've been doing freelance work and trying to find a new agency gig, to no avail so far. Vancouver is a bit of a secondary market unfortunately."

Stefan's three favourite websites (in addition to his own periodically updated blog are his iGoogle page, where he tracks "a few dozen" blogs; Rotten Tomatoes - "I love movies but I hate wasting my time. Very helpful"; and Tag Galaxy- "New and not particularly useful, but it blows me away."

His 3 favourite 'ads' are Goodby's Get the Glass game for Milk ("This showed how well online work could really be done. It elevates the medium"); Diamond Shreddies - last year's campaign from O&M Canada. "Insanely simple but a great idea very well executed"; and finally, any late '80s Nike - "I'm a North American child of the '80s. This is the reason why I got into advertising in the first place. This is where I learned about the emotional impact that advertising could have. And this is where I learned that the business didn't just sell stuff, it creates culture and has an impact on society."

The last three books he read were: God Is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens; The Game - Ken Dryden; and The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan.

In third place was Dave Bradbury, another Art Director in London. His prize was a set of James Bond '50th anniversary of Dr No' stamps (again, I was lucky enough to have been sent two sets).

Dave says: "trying to work out my top 3 ads ever is a tricky one, and I reckon if you asked me again next week I’d say something different", but when pushed he picks Levi’s ‘Swimmer’ - "The best of an incredible bunch"; Pretty much any Nike poster from the early 90’s Simons Palmer era, e.g. “Ever Heard the Algerian National Anthem? You Will”; and a 'live' activity from a few years ago - "A guy in a wheelchair waits at a set of traffic lights, if a driver pulled up and wasn’t wearing a seatbelt then the wheelchair guy went over and tapped on their window. He’d then hand them a leaflet saying something like 'I didn’t wear a seatbelt either.' Kind of effective."

His 3 favourite websites are Flickr; the Vice magazine blog – "good for staying down with the kids, and new stuff"; and Thaksin Sceptic – "a useful and informative place for the disenfranchised Man City supporter."

The book he recommends is British Prints From The Machine Age – Rhythms of Modern Life 1914–1939 by Clifford S. Ackley. "Sounds a bit full-on but it’s a fantastic book of Lino cuts and prints."

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

His agency Howell Henry was the Agency Of The '90s. Was that the problem - that his mojo was last seen in the '90s? Or did he still have the goods, and just got unjustly treated? If you work there, tell the rest of us.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Today's tip is guest-written by Alan Wolk, a U.S. creative director and social media consultant. Alan also runs an insightful blog called The Toad Stool, where he coined the increasingly well-known mantra Your Brand Is Not My Friend.

How To Use Social Media, by Alan Wolk

Social Media is a broad term, and it’s often thrown at any and all online marketing vehicles that don’t fall into the banner ad category.

So let’s start with a brief definition: social media is anything that lets you share information with other people. That means it is everything from sites like Facebook and MySpace to message boards to blogs to widgets and videos and whatnot that you are able to share with your friends—if you find it worth sharing. You, the consumer, get to decide that. Not me, the advertiser. Big difference.

So now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s how to make the most of it:

1. LISTEN. Want to know what people really think of your product? Google it. Chances are you’ll find hundreds of posts and links and comments from people who’ve used your product. Both experts and amateurs. Your goal is to parse through these and see if there’s any common theme. So if an overwhelming majority of comments focus on how the handle always seems to break off right away, you know it’s not just a few angry old ladies. Similarly, if you see a majority of raves about how stylish the new red model is, you know you’ve got a winner on your hands. Use your research to find out things that are buzzworthy—things about your product that people are talking about on their own. That’s what you should be advertising.

2. ENGAGE. If there’s a problem, you’ve got to let people know you’re aware of it. Let them know that you hear them, that you’re working on it, and that you want to keep them as customers. Dell has done this quite successfully and has taken the brand from “Dell Hell” to a much better place.

You can engage them on blogs, via Twitter (Tweetscan is a great tool for monitoring Twitter) or via ads (if you’re honest in the ads and admit there was a problem, rather than trying to gloss over it.) This is a tough one for most clients because they’re not set up to deal with negativity nor do they have the proper people in place to respond to negative comments. You’ve got to be like the best stewardess you’ve ever seen: always smiling, always engaging, always trying to make the unhappy customer happy.

3. REMEMBER YOU’RE NOT THEIR FRIEND. As I’ve written ad intinitum (and ad nauseum) unless you are one of the dozen “Prom King” brands, no one is going to want to hang out with you online. They may use and like your product, but if it’s a reasonable bet that no one will (unironically) wear your logo on a t-shirt, then you are not a Prom King brand and you need to engage people as a salesperson, not a friend. In practical terms, that means that you’re not going to do the next Nike Plus site. (Nike and Apple being major Prom King brands.) But it doesn’t rule out something equally as cool or creative. It’s just that whatever you do has to work a little harder to please people.

4. FIND SOMETHING YOUR CONSUMERS MIGHT CONSIDER USEFUL. This is both easier and harder than you think. All you have to do is put yourself in the consumer’s shoes and think about what they’d be likely to think was cool and worth passing along to their friends. It can be anything from a video to a Facebook app to a downloadable PDF called “10 Packing Tips from Expert Travelers.” The main thing is, it has to provide value. Unfortunately, consumers are the ones who determine if it’s providing value. Not you. Not the D&AD judges. You can call a video “viral” all you want, but unless people pass it around, it’s just a video on YouTube.

5. KEEP YOUR COPY POINTS TO YOURSELF. The absolute worst mistake you can make in social media is to try and treat it like an ad. Which is sadly a knee-jerk reaction for a lot of marketers and agency types. The thing about social media is that it’s all about what the consumer wants to hear. Not about what you want to tell them. And what they want to hear is something about your product that will get them buzzed enough to tell somebody else. To wit: one of the most successful Facebook apps (with something like 7 MILLION installs) is TripAdvisor’s “Cities I’ve Visited.” Which, as the name implies, is a world map where you can mark off all the cities you’ve visited and share that information with your friends. There’s a TripAdvisor logo at the bottom, but that’s about it. No “TripAdvisor makes for better travel experiences by letting you review hotels before you go.” (Or worse.) No, all you take away is “Traveling is fun.” Which, if you’re TripAdvisor, the leading travel review website, is really all you need. The key with social media creative is to make your point gracefully and then get out of the way.

6. SOCIAL MEDIA IS FOREVER. In addition to things on the web being up there pretty much forever, social media campaigns don’t have the short shelf life of ad campaigns. You can’t start up a really active message board and then ignore it because the TV spot’s no longer running. People will be furious. Ditto an online video that sends you to a web site. Way too often the agency and client forget about the web site or worse, take it down. And you’ll literally have thousands of people watching it as much as a year later and all they’re seeing is a blank page or an error message, when a simple redirect would have done the trick. (This effect is known as “The Long Tail” and there’s a whole book about it that’s worth knowing about.)

7. YOU CAN’T FAKE IT. This is probably the single most important lesson. Authenticity is king. That means no fake blogs. No fake characters created solely for representing the demographic you’re targeting. No lying.

It also means you’ve got to use the actual social media vehicles. Get your butt onto Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter. And you’ve got to use them correctly too. Twitter is about conversation. It’s not about setting up an account, adding a few people to your “People I’m Following” list and only tweeting links to articles about your agency while never actually responding to anyone who tries to engage you. The same way Facebook isn’t about setting up an account, accepting friend requests from a handful of people and never exploring what’s going on there.

Look, you may feel like an old fuddy-duddy at first. Or be confused as to why anyone would want to do this (which I think is most everyone’s first reaction to Twitter.) But the more you know, the more you are a part of what’s happening as opposed to merely an observer, the better you’ll be at figuring out ways to use it.

8. SOCIAL MEDIA DOES NOT EXIST IN A VACUUM. I mean it’s not like there’s some parallel universe where people only use Facebook. Those same people are watching your commercials on TV, reading them in their favorite magazines and hearing them on the radio. So there’s got to be some synergy between the various efforts. Some realization that even if clients and agencies silo ads according to media type, people don’t. So suggesting that a print ad actually reference a Facebook app you’ve created makes perfect sense. (To everyone but the people who have to figure out whose budget that cost is coming out of, but that’s not your problem.)

So that’s about it. The good news for agencies is that social media is about what consumers want to hear. And what consumers want to hear is rarely dull, dry, or overburdened with endless arcane copy points.